Hip impingement diagnosis (maybe)

Yesterday I had my appointment with the consultant at the Duchy Hospital in Truro. It was a 90-mile drive from my office in Exeter and I was eager to see if my hip problem would be diagnosed. It was ‘orthopaedic day’ at the hospital and the outpatients’ area was bustling with people (mostly hobbling). After a short anticipative wait, I was called into the consulting room.

Following a chat about my problem and how it came to be, a walk around the room and some prodding, pulling and twisting, my consultant seemed confident that the cause of pain was a torn labrum developed as a result of a hip impingement, as suspected by the hip surgeon I’d previous communicated with. It can’t be confirmed for sure until I’ve had an MRI arthrogram, but this is the preliminary diagnosis.

I was also sent to x-ray as a matter of practice and the results were normal, which was expected. So next step is the MRI arthrogram, which I hope won’t be far too far away.

Remedy

Having read quite a lot about FAI and the two main types of surgery (open and arthroscopic), I already had a pretty good idea of the steps needed to fix the problem. However, I had convinced myself that, given the relative minority of my pain and problems, arthroscopic surgery would be the chosen path.

My consultant said that open surgery would be the preferred option as it’s more likely to have a positive outcome in the long term. I was informed that arthroscopic surgery has its limitations and is therefore preferred in older patients where the likelihood of other problems is lower than with open surgery. However, as a young man in good health without any other hip problems, I would expect to recover well from open surgery.

I was informed that a complete recovery takes about 12 months and that the operation has a 90% success rate.

Is this right for me?

I really didn’t expect that open surgery would be for me. My pain, although bad at times, is sporadic and I’m generally able to walk well. I’m unable to do most activities and sports so my life is certainly restricted, but not to the extent where I’m constantly in pain or unable to lead a fairly normal life. Since the appointment yesterday I keep asking myself, ‘do I really need major surgery and 12 months of recovery?’

The more I read about the procedure, like the trochanteric osteotomy, hip dislocation and osteoplasty, the more I’m beginning to worry. We don’t yet know for sure that this is the problem, so I should probably stop thinking about it so much until I have the MRI arthrogram.